This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our Cookies Policy.

It's another reappointment for Brazil as Dunga handed back control of Seleção

And there we were thinking they wanted to play football again.

BRAZIL’S FOOTBALL CONFEDERATION (CFB) have today confirmed the reappointment of Dunga as replacement for Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Dunga, 50, was Brazil’s 1994 World-Cup winning captain and takes the reins for a second time having led the Seleção at the 2010 tournament.

“I am immensely happy – thank you for your confidence in me,” said Dunga, who in his playing days was a tough-tackling midfielder with Serie A side Fiorentina and Germany’s Stuttgart, and who also had a spell in Japan with Jubilo Iwata.

“The fans are very down right now but they are right behind the team which means so much to them,” Dunga continued.

“I am not here to sell a dream, we must get down to work,” he added, arriving with a brief to make the team shipshape for the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with next year’s Copa America in Chile a first test.

“We must get results and forge a side for 2018. This team is very young. We must find the way to blend new players with those who have more experience.

“We have to work conscientiously. And not just the players, but the press and the fans too,” said Dunga, who in 60 games in charge in his first stint never really won over the fans who yearned for more “jogo bonito” (beautiful game) and less battling grit.

His no nonsense style dating from his days as a player was decried by some but his 91 caps showed the esteem in which he was held and that respect has endured, CBF president Jose Maria Marin said.

“He was world champion, captain of a world champion side,” Marin said.

“He has what it takes to lead the Brazil team. The numbers show he absolutely has the ability to take charge.”

Dunga said Brazil had to understand that the modern game is constantly evolving.

“Football changes every instant and every day. Attacking football, as people understand it, is to play with four or five up front. But at the World Cup you saw teams marking 10 metres behind the halfway line!”

Dunga was fired after a quarter-final loss to Holland in South Africa four years ago but previously landed both the Copa America title and the Confederations Cup having replaced Carlos Alberto Parreira as coach in 2006 despite having no dugout experience.

Brazil suffered one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history at home this month after they lost their semi-final 7-1 to eventual champions Germany.

Benefiting Dunga’s cause was the fact that he is someone who can trace his footballing lineage within the Brazilian game back 27 years, to when he made his international debut.

Over that time Brazil have constantly fretted about how to recapture the halcyon era of Pele and company, who turned the game into an art form between 1958 and 1970, since when fans have lamented a more cautious approach which many feel Dunga personifies.

Early favorite for the post, assuming Brazil did not make a leap of faith in appointing a foreign coach, was ex-Corinthians boss Tite.

But the appointment of Gilmar Rinaldi, a reserve goalkeeper on the 1994 team and a close friend, to replace Parreira as technical coordinator, helped Dunga’s cause.

“The candidate who is favored in the polls is not always the one who wins,” said Dunga, admitting he believed he would have to win over the 80 percent of observers he estimated were not enthralled at his return.

Marin said the appointment was designed to broach the need for reform yet within continuity.

“This choice of Dunga is our project. There has been an exchange of ideas between everyone — the idea is one of continuity.”

Dunga’s first match in charge will be a September 5 friendly against Colombia in Miami.

TheJournal.ie supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, PH: (01) 6489130, Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.